News / UK audit office casts doubt over new Customs Declaration System, as industry warns of "disastrous" consequences post-Brexit

14/07/2017

The UK government’s National Audit Office has cast severe doubt on the ability of the Declaration System (CDS), currently being developed, to handle the 255m declarations per year it is projected to need to process in a post-Brexit UK.

The CDS was originally conceived to replace Customs’ existing CHIEF system following the introduction of the EU’s Union Customs Code, which has an implementation deadline of 2020.

However, given that the UK is currently scheduled to leave the EU in March 2019, this deadline has ...